N°2 July 2018

ANOTHER STEPFORWARD

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

A MARINE Agri Max!

REPORT

INTERMAT 2018

NEW AGRICULTURAL RANGE

SOUTH AFRICA

A HANGAR for ICARUS

INNOVATION

NEW LOOK for theAGRICULTURAL RANGE

NEW ACCESSORIES

NEVER TOO HIGH

DIECI and ENGINES

BARCELONA, like aJEWEL in the SUN

3N°2 July 2018

editorial

It is with pleasure that I accept the invi-tation to write these lines as a foreword to this new issue of the Dieci magazi-ne. An invitation that could not come at a better time, during a late spring in which we are preparing to reap the fruits of the Earth, and in which we as

users who contact manufacturers like us directly to request or suggest im-provements. The new cab’s suspen-sion system, which drastically reduces vibration, is the result of this close re-lationship with end-users, who are a precious resource for assessing our innovations and developments on the ground. Besides featuring new cabins, the vehicles in the agricultural range will also be fitted with new Stage IV/Tier 4f engines. Priority will initially be given to the Agri Farmer, Agri Plus, Agri Star and Agri Max models (which will be launched after the summer), before rolling out the upgrades to all the other models in the range.

Ciro Correggi

a company are also beginning to reap the fruits of our labour. I am talking about the new look sported by the vehicles in the agricultural range, with cabins developed by Giugiaro Design exclusively for Dieci and new mecha-nical and electronic equipment. It is a process that was started months ago and in parallel with many others, whose paths have intersected over and over at various stages. For example, after a meticulous design and development stage, the new cab was exhibited for the first time at INTERMAT on the new Icarus 50.18, where, together with the new Pegasus 50.26, it was a re-sounding success, thereby confirming the validity of our idea. Nowadays ae-sthetics, comfort and safety at work are criteria demanded not only by the market, but also by the numerous end-

ANOTHER STEPFORWARD

4 N°2 July 2018

A MarineAgri Max!6

12 16

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

A MARINEAGRI MAX! page 6

SOUTH AFRICA

A HANGARFOR ICARUS page 10

INNOVATION

NEW LOOKFOR THE AGRICULTURAL RANGE page 12DIECI AND ENGINES

BARCELONA,LIKE A JEWELIN THE SUN page 16

Dieci Magazine July 2018 ANOTHER STEP FORWARD...

NEW LOOK FOR THEAGRICOLTURAL RANGE

18

10

5N°2 July 2018

16 BARCELLONA,like a jewel in the sun

18

REPORT

INTERMAT 2018lights and shadows under the Paris sky page 18

NEW ZEALAND

The AGRI MAX:an all-in-one groundcrew page 22

NEW ACCESSORIES

NEVERTOO HIGH page 26

LATIN AMERICAAN ALMOST AGRICOLTURAL

PEGASUS page 26

22

18 An almost agricoltural PEGASUS

INTERMAT 2018

A HANGAR for ICARUS10

The AGRI MAX:an all-in-one groundcrew

Never too HIGH

24 26

6 N°2 July 20186

A MARINEAgri Max!

N°2 July 2018

7N°2 July 2018 7

Norway is synonymous with sai-lors: since the days of the Vikings, the Norwegians have always crossed the seas, and continue to do so in their free time! They undoubtedly benefit from over 21,000 kilometres of jagged coastline, interspersed with countless fjords and characteristic, small rocky islands called skerries. Contrary to what one might think, the climate along the Norwegian coast is not as frigid as the interior of the country, due to the Gulf Stream flowing along Norway’s co-ast and heating its waters, which keeps the average winter temperatures above zero, even in some areas north of the Polar Circle. But there is a downside. Between autumn and early winter, icy air from the country’s interior frequen-tly collides with milder and more humid

maritime air, generating violent storms that engulf the coastline. For this re-ason, during the stormy season, it is common practice to haul out boats and repair them indoors. It also hap-pens here in Dypedal–close to the bor-der with Sweden, near Vesterøy and south of Oslo—which is home to the Hvaler Marinesenter, a centre specia-lising in the maintenance and storage of fishing boats and the many wonder-ful yachts with which modern Norwe-gians satisfy their love for the sea. In winter, when sailing is impossible, the yachts in the local marina are hau-led out using the centre’s slipway and stored in a boathouse, where they are stored and maintained over the winter, before being returned to the water the following spring. This is done using a

N°2 July 2018

8 N°2 July 2018

“Norway is synonymous with sailors: since the days of the Vikings, the Norwegians have always crossed the seas, and continue to do so

in their free time! They undoubtedly benefit from over 21,000kilometres of jagged coastline, interspersed with countless fjords

and characteristic, small rocky islands called skerries”

special trailer capable of support ves-sels weighing up to 47 tonnes, which is towed by an Agri Max 65.8 VS Evo2 supplied to Hvaler Marinesenter by Trucktech AS, Dieci’s Norwegian distributor. The Agri Max is the ideal vehicle for this job, thanks to the 103 Kw output by its Stage IIIb/Tier4i FPT engine, and above all the INCHING pedal control, which allows the vehi-cle to advance slowly, even with the engine running at full speed. When a boat is hauled out, it must be gently seated onto the trailer mounts, before the Agri Max pulls it out of the water with a slow but steady movement. Once the yacht is on dry land, the Agri Max tows it into the boathouse, whe-re it will spend the winter positioned

9N°2 July 2018

...between autumn and early winter, icy air from the country’s interior collides with milder and more humid maritime air,

generating violent storms that engulf the coastline.For this reason, during the stormy season, it is common practice

to haul out boats and repair them indoors.

on supports and subjected to annual maintenance. Thanks to its power and agility, the Agri Max is able to accura-tely position boats next to each other inside the crowded boathouse. When the calm season arrives, the procedu-re is repeated in reverse:The yachts and other boats are re-positioned on the trailer, the Agri Max then launches them down the slipway slowly to prevent damage, letting the weight of the boat transfer progressi-vely from the trailer to the water as it starts to float, without causing dama-ge to sensitive parts such as propel-lers, rudders and transmission shafts. It is a job that requires lots of power in controlled bursts, which only the Agri Max can deliver.

10 N°2 July 2018

The name “Icarus” is forever asso-ciated with flight, so finding one of our namesake machines at work in an aircraft hangar really is a pleasant surprise! The hangar in question is lo-cated at Wonderboom Airport in Pre-toria, South Africa, where 208 Aviation has its headquarters. The company specialises in the maintenance of pi-ston-engine and turboprop aircraft for both private customers and commer-cial airlines. International law dictates that all aircraft, whatever their type or size, must undergo regular scheduled maintenance, and this is one of the

reasons why air travel remains the sa-fest form of transport of all: according to figures from the Italian traffic police, in 2017, 1,200,000 people worldwide were involved in road accidents, the equivalent of 3400 every day, or rou-ghly 140 every hour. Over the same period, according to data from the Aviation Safety Network, out of a total of 36.8 million flights, all over the world there were just 24 accidents, involving 230 people. These are astonishing figures that underline the vital impor-tance of regular maintenance. Aircraft undergo two types of scheduled

10 N°2 July 2018

A hangarfor Icarus

11N°2 July 2018

than the 2-tonne AT-300, a vehicle in which enormous lifting power is combined with extreme precision and control. Once the aircraft is attached at its centre of gravity (just forward of the cockpit), Icarus gently lifts the fuselage off the floor of the container, then backs out, being careful not to hit the wings and other components still stored inside, before lowering it gently onto the supports. The whole task is successfully accomplished in just a few minutes. The two bright yel-low vehicles shine brightly in the South African sunshine: one of them can ac-tually fly, but ours provides the lift!

maintenance, commonly referred to light and heavy checks. Light checks, which are carried out approximately every 200 flight hours, involve inspec-tion of the entire airframe, along with testing of the engines and all the other on-board systems. Heavy checks, also known as “overhaul checks”, are performed after approximately 18,000 flight hours. The aircraft is almost completely dismantled down to the smallest components, re-assembled and then flight-tested. And is for the-se checks that aircraft come to 208 Aviation from all over South Africa and neighbouring countries.

Usually the aircraft are flown in, but in this case our Icarus 40.17 is used to remove the fuselage of an Air Tractor AT-300 from a container; this is an agricultural aircraft used all over the world and which is now also famous for its lead role in the Disney anima-tion Planes. Although still widely used, the AT-300 was constructed back in the 1970s and can therefore be con-sidered a vintage aircraft, with a va-lue of around 120,000 dollars! This could make what is already a rather delicate manoeuvre even more tricky. Thankfully, it’s child’s play for a vehicle designed to lift much heavier weights

12 N°2 July 2018

New look for theAGRICOLTURAL RANGE

12 N°2 Luglio 2018

13N°2 July 2018

We saw it at the World Premiere last year at Agritechnica, we saw it again at Intermat (mounted for the first time on a vehicle designed for heavy indu-stry): soon the New Cab, developed exclusively by the famous GIUGIARO DESIGN studio, will be introduced on all the vehicles in the DIECI AGRI-CULTURAL RANGE, starting with the Agri Farmer, Agri Plus, Agri Star and Agri Max models. We would like to take this opportunity to describe it in more in depth and illustrate the philo-sophy behind this choice. In order to do that, let’s go back in time several decades to 1940, when a classic of industrial design was unveiled, the

New look for theAGRICOLTURAL RANGE

13N°2 July 2018

Jeep MB Willys, a now legendary U.S. car which, in the post-war years, con-tributed to increasing car ownership throughout the world: a square metal box in which comfort and safety were sacrificed for the utmost functionality. At the time there wasn’t the same va-riety of materials that is available today, and the only design solution for pre-venting breakages, breakdowns and wear was redundancy: redundancy in terms of dimensions, thickness of materials, displacement and auxilia-ry systems. However, redundancy translates into higher weight and fuel consumption, weakened performan-ce, maintenance difficulties, and lack of attention paid to fundamental con-

cepts such as emissions, safety, ope-rator comfort and vehicle habitability. Not to mention aesthetics, which were considered unnecessary and super-fluous, especially in a working vehicle, a concept that persisted until at least the 1950s, when industrial design be-came established thanks to techno-logical research, the development of new materials (plastics and new metal alloys) and advances in electronics. The 1950s and 1960s were also the golden age of Italian industrial design, with names such as Giacosa, Zava-nella, Gardella, Fiume, Nizzoli, Fonta-na and others helping Italian exports to grow by 259% in the ten-year pe-riod 1951–1961.

14 N°2 July 2018

By this time, design was no longer seen as superfluous, but an integral part of the modern technological evo-lution. It is a concept that has always been integral to the construction phi-losophy of DIECI, which successfully combines efficiency, innovation and style. That is why the company turned to the famous Giugiaro Design studio for the construction of the new cabin. Let’s look at the characteristics of this important innovation in detail, starting with the interior, which is made enti-rely of automotive-based soft-touch materials that are extremely soft to the touch and also give the structure great rigidity, which in turn drastically reduces vibration, improving thermal insulation and soundproofing. The soft colours chosen for the interior instan-tly brighten up the cab and the various components are injection-moulded, a procedure that reduces the number of parts while maximising their dimensio-nal precision, thus facilitating assem-bly, increasing structural rigidity and enhancing the perceived aesthetic quality of the new design. The legen-dary comfort of DIECI cabs has been further enhanced with the adoption of the new shock absorption system (ca-pable of smoothing out the harshest bumps efficiently, even when negotia-ting rough terrain) and a new air con-ditioning system that guarantees even air distribution like no other telehandler model, thanks to advanced fluid dyna-mic studies performed using CFD si-

15N°2 July 2018

mulations. The ergonomic design was also subject to painstaking analysis, resulting in a rational instrumentation layout and the adoption of an adjusta-ble armrest for the new joystick. The joystick also incorporates the fwd/rev selector (FNR forward/reverse shuttle) for easier and more practical direc-tion control. As for the electronics, we have the CANBUS system, which establishes the optimal work and sa-

fety parameters by means of in-depth diagnostics, presenting the values on the new 7” LCD display in real time, so that the operator can keep track of all the necessary information to monitor the vehicle and its systems in a detai-led and intuitive manner. The vehicle’s electronic control system (fully inte-grated) is an exclusive DIECI feature. The switches are back-lit, and all the vehicle’s control functions (steering

mode, RPM control, travel speed and diagnostics) are managed by a single control unit. As already mentioned, the new cabs will be installed on the new agricultural range vehicles destined for the European and North American markets, and will be marketed in two versions, “Standard” and “Luxury”.

By this time, design was no longer seen as superfluous, but anintegral part of the modern technological evolution.

It is a concept that has always been integral to the construction philosophy of DIECI, which successfully combines efficiency,

innovation and style...

16N°2 July 201816 N°2 July 2018

“Barcelona,like a jewel in the sun”

“Mud and driving rain alternated with flashes of sun that illuminate stretches of land and asphalt furrowed by scorching tyres. In the background, a Zeus 40.7 manoeuvres around obstacles as its headlights cut through the curtain of rain...”

17N°2 July 2018 17N°2 July 2018

“Barcelona,like a jewel in the sun”

Mud and driving rain alternated with flashes of sun that illuminate stretches of land and asphalt furrowed by scor-ching tyres. In the background, a Zeus 40.7 manoeuvres around obstacles as its headlights cut through the curtain of rain... These are not scenes from a building site or livestock farm, but the Circuit de Catalunya motorsport race track in Montmelò, 20 km northeast of Barcelona, where the first round of the 2018 Rallycross Championship took place on 14 April.

For the record, the race was won by Johan Kristofferson in a Volkswa-gen Polo, followed by multiple world champion Sébastien Loeb in a Peuge-ot 208, but the Grand Prix of Safety was won hands-down by DIECI vehi-cles, which intervened on several oc-casions to clear the track after a num-ber of accidents. The sun came out on Sunday 15 April, bringing a little respi-te to the many spectators after rain-storms had repeatedly battered the circuit the previous day. The adverse

weather made for a spectacular con-test, causing accidents and spinouts as the enthusiastic drivers vied for su-premacy in this crucial opening race of the championship. The vehicles (one Zeus 40.7 Evo2 and one Agri Star 37.7) were supplied to the circuit’s re-scue team by COMERCIAL REYMA-VIC, one of DIECI’s dealers in Spain, which also supplied the machines’ operators. Strategically positioned at the Estadi curve and at the pits, the vehicles were in action non-stop for

18 N°2 July 2018

two days, both as part of the rescue team and as service vehicles, moving the various race teams’ equipment and repositioning the barriers after each accident.Between 11 and 13 May, the rescue vehicle patrol (reinforced by three De-dalus 30.7s, two Dedalus 30.9s and a Pegasus 40.18) was again called into action for the Spanish Grand Prix: among the drivers and cars benefiting from our vehicles’ assistance during

the practice sessions were Daniel Ric-ciardo and his Red Bull, Lance Stroll in a Williams, and Brendon Hartley, who crashed into the barriers with such force that the rear end of his Toro Ros-so was destroyed.Subsequently during the race, a spin by Romain Grosjean triggered a pi-le-up that took out his Haas, Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault and Pierre Ga-sly’s Toro Rosso, all of which were promptly recovered by our vehicles,

which allowed the race to resume quickly.The race was won by Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes, but DIECI continues to blaze a trail in Formula 1 because during the remainder of the cham-pionship, we will have further oppor-tunities to see our yellow-and-black vehicles protect the safety of the spectators and drivers.Next stop SOCHI on 30 September for the Russian Grand Prix!

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20 N°2 July 2018

This 2018 edition of Intermat, the Paris industrial and construction ma-chinery fair, is like an Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph: a black and white image with strong contrasts and differences in shade so sharp they look like tears in the paper. Although the “official communiques” celebrate this edition as yet another success, the general impression reported by visitors and the comparison with past

editions reveal a gradual shrinkage of what is still the industry’s second big-gest show: an overall drop in atten-dance (173,000 visitors compared to 183,000 in the 2015 edition), the deci-sion of some of the industry’s biggest brands not to exhibit, and above all a fair that is becoming less and less international and increasingly focused on the French, or at least the Europe-an, market. So simply a list of negati-

ves? Not at all, in fact... In this edition of contrasts, visitor turnout was lower but their quality was paradoxically hi-gher, in a kind of unintentional “natural selection”. There were fewer visitors, but they were more motivated, more interested in buying and, above all, overwhelmingly made up of “profes-sionals” in a European context where the construction industry is recovering strongly and there is vibrant growth in

INTERMAT 2018:light and shadows under the Paris sky

21N°2 July 2018

the hire sector, which fuelled a spike in the number of orders placed at the show!A situation that is also extremely fa-vourable for DIECI, which turned up at the Parc des Expositions in Villepinte with two outstanding novelties: the new Icarus 50.18 and Pegasus 50.26.Standing out amongst the other vehi-cles in the Dieci construction range, they did not fail to attract attention, with some orders placed at the event itself. Without a doubt, the biggest at-traction was the new Icarus, due to its boosted performance (with a payload of 5 tonnes and lifting height of 18 me-tres) and the appeal of the new cab,

developed in association with Giugia-ro Design and installed on a heavy in-dustrial vehicle for the first time. Not to mention the new modular chassis, 85 kW Kubota Stage 4 engi-ne, new hydraulic system and electro-nically controlled hydrostatic transmis-sion. The new, best-in-class Icarus 50.18 completes the DIECI range of industrial telehandlers. Another jewel in the crown of this edition was the Pegasus 50.26, the latest stage in the range’s development, with extensive use of electronics for controlling both the vehicle (CAN-BUS technology), and the FTP NEFN45 Turbo Common Rail engine (compliant with Europe-

an and U.S. regulations on pollutant emissions). Lifting height has also been increased on the Pegasus (to 26 metres), thanks to the new four-sec-tion boom with simultaneous, propor-tional extension.The new hydrostatic transmission, ca-pacitive joystick and two 3.5” and 7” TFT displays are equally important.These two major innovations attracted great interest at the fair and confirm the company’s philosophy of conti-nuous technological innovation pur-sued in recent years.And there is plenty more in the pipeli-ne between now and the next INTER-MAT in 2021.

22 N°2 July 2018

The Agri Max:an all-in-one ground crew

22 N°2 July 2018

23N°2 July 2018 23N°2 July 2018

“...the pilot immediately turns the plane, ready to take off immediately once refuelled. Our Agri Max, equipped with a special quick-release hopper,

approaches the aircraft and uses its extending boom to position the hopper over the special loading hatch, located immediately behind the cockpit.

Within a few seconds, one tonne of seed or fertiliser is transferred from the hopper to the plane.”

24 N°2 July 2018

New Zealand is a strange and beau-tiful country. We have seen wonderful glimpses of it in numerous films, inclu-ding The Lord of the Rings. A count-ry only slightly smaller than Italy (and curiously with the same boot shape) but inhabited by just 4.5 million peo-ple, of whom 87% are concentrated in the cities. A country that gained in-dependence from Great Britain only in 1947, a country where agriculture and livestock remain traditional sources of income and where butter and wool production are still measured in quin-tals per hectare. Despite the country’s generally puritan and conservative culture (derived from the first Anglo-Saxon settlers), New Zealand has

always been a pioneering country in many ways: for example, it was one of the first to extend the vote to wo-men in 1893, and the first to experi-ment with “aerial agriculture” in 1906, when farmer John Chaytor used a hot air balloon to sow lupin seeds over his family plot! And it was in New Zealand after the Second World War that the practice of “topdressing” was develo-ped, which involves sowing and fertili-sing crops from the air. The first expe-riments were carried out in the United States during the Roaring Twenties, when airplanes and military pilots were employed to spray insecticides onto crops threatened by swarms of caterpillars. New Zealand’s soils are low in phosphate and require periodic

spraying of fertilisers to support the growth of forage and crops. Because pastures and plantations are spread over such a vast area, some New Ze-aland farmers had the idea (between the 1920s and 1930s) of using Tiger Moth biplanes to sow and irrigate their land. After some experiments, the idea was officially adopted by the go-vernment’s Public Works Department, using the Royal New Zealand Air For-ce’s enormous stocks of bombers and transport aircraft left over from the Se-cond World War. This availability of a vast number of low-cost aircraft, sold off by the government, subsequently led to a booming private industry in terms of the production of new speci-fic aircraft models and the hiring of air

24 N°2 July 2018

25N°2 July 2018

workers employed in topdressing. To date, over 112 aerial seeding and crop spraying companies operate daily in New Zealand with a fleet of over 230 aircraft of various types. One of them is Southern Aviation, which uses an Agri Max 75.10 as a ground crew for rapid resupply of seed or fertiliser. In this case, Southern Aviation uses a Fletcher FU-24, a light ground-attack aircraft developed in the United Sta-tes, which has been successfully con-verted for agricultural use. The agile and powerful FU-24 is able to take off from makeshift runways, carrying a payload of over one tonne up to 350 km away at a speed of 230 km per hour. The takeoffs and landings con-tinue from sunrise to sunset in order to make the most of the available day-light, especially since there are mul-tiple plots that are often miles away from each other. For this reason, fast resupply on each landing is of vital im-portance: just like in Formula 1, every second counts! After landing, the pilot immediately turns the plane, ready to take off immediately once refuelled. Our Agri Max, equipped with a special quick-release hopper, approaches the aircraft and uses its extending boom to position the hopper over the special loading hatch, located immediately behind the cockpit. Within a few se-conds, one tonne of seed or fertiliser is transferred from the hopper to the plane. As if in a choreographed se-quence, as soon as the Agri Max has

consequences both for the pilot and for anyone on the ground. Thanks to its off-road capabilities and towing hook, a further advantage of the Agri Max is that it can operate on the most remote landing fields, single-handedly pulling the trailer with the substances to be sprayed. Not all air companies have an Agri Max equipped with a hopper, but after reading this article, who knows...

moved a safe distance away, the pla-ne takes off again while the Agri Max fills the hopper for the next load. It se-ems easy at first glance, but there are established procedures and important safety rules to be observed, such as the distance of the Agri Max from mo-ving surfaces and propellers, or the precision in correctly filling the loading hatch. Undiscovered impact damage, or leaked material that interferes with the controls, could have dangerous

25N°2 July 2018

26 N°2 July 2018

It is natural that an environment like this, right next to Fulda (which is one of Hessen’s most important districts) is home to Mott Baumpflegedienst, a leading company (in Hessen and Nor-thern Bavaria) in the tree and garden care market.Mott Baumpflegedienst has purcha-sed a Pegasus 45.30 with special equipment for pruning gardens, whe-re older or taller trees in need of ex-tra pruning or felling are often located close to homes. In order to prevent potentially serious accidents, pruning needs to be undertaken by expe-

rienced professionals (such as Mott Baumpflegedienst) using the most advanced and effective equipment.The Pegasus 45.30 certainly ticks tho-se boxes, with its 360° rotation, 4500 kg lifting capacity and maximum lifting height of 29.6 metres. It is now even safer and more effective for this line of work, thanks to the use of the Kinsho-fer KM 634-0.35-3Z logging grapple. This rotating hydraulic grapple/saw mounted on the head of the Pegasus boom can cut the highest canopies and branches as heavy as 2000 kg, even near to buildings.

Hessen is rightly considered the greenest region of Germany: as much as 42% of its territory, consisting mainly of hills and low mountain ranges, is covered by

forests. The region is also home to numerous rivers (the Fulda, the Lahn, the Eder, the Weser, the Rhine and the Main) and many well-tended gardens that surround

both historic buildings and private homes.

NEVERtoo high

Using the Pegasus boom, the branch is gripped, held by the hydraulic claws (to prevent damage from falling tim-ber) and simultaneously cut, before being safely deposited on the ground. Thanks to the Pegasus-Kinshofer combination, a job that would other-wise have taken hours and posed serious risks to the many operators involved can be done in just a few mi-nutes and in total safety.Special thanks to Mott Baumpflege-dienst for choosing our product and for the photos accompanying our ar-ticle.

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28 N°2 July 201828 N°2 July 2018

An almost Agricoltural PEGASUS

29N°2 July 2018

We often hear the Amazon Basin described as the “Green Lung of the World”; a vast biological sanctuary of almost 7 million square kilometres, ne-cessary for maintaining the ecological balance of the entire planet.However, we must not forget South America’s other two vitally important river basins, those of the Orinoco and Paraguay/Paranà: they occupy an im-mense area of more than 3 and a half million square kilometres, and contain one of South America’s most intensely cultivated zones. The fertile river depo-sits that make up the soil in this area were the basis for the development of the ancient peoples of South Ameri-ca, who prospered by growing plant species unknown to us Europeans until the discovery of the American continent, including corn, tomato, po-tato, squash, capsicum, and dozens of varieties of beans. Today we think of these species as “ours”, but at the time of the Conquistadores they were unknown and viewed with suspicion: in Spain, the tomato was considered

poisonous for quite some time, and only used as an ornamental garden plant. Even the potato was only used to feed animals for decades after its im-portation, before eventually becoming one of our favourite vegetables. When attempts were made to introduce Euro-pean plants and cereal crops to South America, they did not thrive, or failed to grow at all. The cause was (and still is today) a characteristic of the vast ma-jority of South American soils: their very high acidity. The more acid the soil, the harder it is for seedlings to absorb ele-ments such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and above all phospho-rus, a substance necessary both for plant growth and for photosynthesis. Paraguay had to get to grips with the problem in the 1980s, when it began intensive farming of wheat and soybe-ans. Now, with over 500,000 hectares under cultivation, it is one of the world’s biggest producers of these crops: analysis revealed that more than 85% of the land cultivated was strongly aci-dic, and needed regular spraying with

correctives to allow its use for growing European species. This corrective (an ancient yet simple and still effective re-medy) is agricultural lime. Calpar S.A. of Villeta (Paraguay) is one of the biggest South American producers of “Dolomi-tic Hydrated Lime”, a corrective which, when spread on soils, naturally redu-ces their acidity, renders them more tillable and facilitates the absorption of nutrients by plants. “Dolomitic Lime” is obtained by crushing particularly pure, high-magnesium limestones, which are then treated with water, reduced to the right particle size, and then dried. Calpar produces 1,800,000 tonnes of Lime every year, with a storage capa-city of 200,000 tonnes of material for drying and storing. Every day (including Sundays and public holidays) around 14,000 tonnes of soil improver are di-spatched to destinations throughout Paraguay and South America. To deal with this huge amount of materials, Cal-par has acquired a Pegasus 40.18, a vehicle conceived for the construction sector and for particularly high lifting,

30 N°2 July 2018

but successfully converted for use in this specific agricultural sector. Lime leaving the mills (in big bags, very large bags containing one tonne each) has to be transferred to the drying sheds, aerated from time to time, and then stowed on trucks for shipment. In all these tasks, the Pegasus is aided by its 400° rotation: it would be unthinka-ble for any forklift, for example, to ma-noeuvre in the narrow aisles between

the stacks of bags, with 4 big bags on its forks... there would not be enough room and it would not have the load capacity! The Pegasus, on the other hand, is designed for much tougher tasks. It can easily fit 4 bags onto its forks, lift them up, turn through 180° and place them on a truck, perhaps even without shifting is wheels an inch and with the safety (always top priori-ty) of being able to keep an eye on the

entire surrounding area from high up in the cab. A 2011 survey calculated that the use of Dolomitic Hydrated Lime has reduced Paraguay’s production costs by 26% and increased yields by 28%, figures which can be extended to all South American’s major river ba-sins, a success in which our Pegasus has also played a small part.

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YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS

This space is dedicated to sharing photographs kindly sent to us by readers. Please send pictures of your vehicles, including your name and country.

Pawel Trzonkowski - POLONIA

Pawel Trzonkowski - POLONIA

Pawel Trzonkowski - POLONIA

To write to Dieci Magazine:email info@dieci.com

Editors:Roberto Bigliardi Michele Becchi

Production and graphics: Propago comunicazione info@propago.it

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